Representatives from the SA Board for People Practices (SABPP), government, the private sector and non-governmental organisations have started the ball rolling to establish a leadership standard for South Africa.

According to Marius Meyer, CEO of the SABPP, this leadership standard will provide clear guidelines for leaders in the country to raise the bar.

A consolidated first draft, that contains all stakeholder submissions so far, will be available on 1 October and will be officially launched on 26 October at the second leadership standards public session.

Further stakeholder engagement and market consultation, refinement, awareness and capacity-building will continue and implementation of the leadership standard will start in 2018.

Four key principles, philosophy, tone organisation culture and leadership outcomes form the framework that supports the five elements of leadership, namely vision, values, leading people, value and reflection.

Redefining leadership

“We are conceptualising what good leadership is all about for the South African leader. We want to create a consistent guideline for leadership practice. Currently, leaders operate on gut feel, or react when things go wrong, or are simply unable to respond appropriately to uncertain events and crises, as we have seen recently. Ordinary South Africans are asking if we are leaderless.

“However, we did not focus on the negativity of the situation, but rather on deciding what good leadership is. In the past, people would simply follow their leaders, but today we all have a voice and people question everything leaders say and do. The days of blind loyalty to leaders are over, especially when trust is eroded,” Meyer says.

The SABPP has welcomed further input, which can be submitted to marius@sabpp.co.za